Insights and analysis for the media industry

Entrepreneurs realize that a business must evolve to stay relevant: give consumers what they want. Unfortunately, the same is true for the online piracy business. As pirates evolve, we need to be one step ahead.

New trend
Over the last few months a new trend in streaming piracy has emerged.

Pay-TV operators are used to thinking in terms of winning the largest share of a consumer’s disposable income: their wallet. In today’s digital world, is that still the most important battleground? With only so many minutes in the day, should operators really be fighting for people’s time?

What’s the fuss all about?
Watching TV typically comes out top in any survey related to leisure activities or media consumption.

One of the things I love about this industry is that it’s constantly evolving. I believe the media industry is at the cusp of some of the most significant and rapid change we’ve seen in decades. And we are already seeing the early opportunities that this new paradigm brings.

Not losing focus
Consolidation within the industry shows no sign of stopping; most recently Charter’s planned acquisition of TimeWarner as well as Arris|Pace merging.

It may sound strange coming from the SVP Sales & Marketing but…. Sometimes it’s not about “always closing” – it’s about raising awareness. And that’s certainly true when it comes to the growing online piracy problem.

Headline grabbing
Piracy levels surrounding the season 5 premier of Game of Thrones™ received global news coverage. The Irdeto piracy data, used by the press, showed that new season premiers increase piracy activity, both of old episodes and the new season.

As Netflix continues its global expansion, so too do the debates whether its service accelerates cord-cutting from traditional pay-TV services. But are we looking at this from the wrong perspective? Is the rising OTT tide, in fact, floating all boats including the pay-TV operator’s?

Growing steadily
In a recent report, Digital TV Research forecasted that North American OTT revenues will reach USD 20.39bn in 2020, up from USD 6.85bn last year. And I believe this growth trend is true globally.

The harsh reality is we can’t eradicate online piracy. But what we can do is make it as difficult as possible for the pirates. Without an effective supply chain a business will struggle to give consumers what they want. And that’s no different for the pirates!

Where would you go? The biggest, of course!
On a typical day, there are approximately 1.9million product listings for pirate OTT devices and services available for purchase through major online retailers. Unfortunately piracy is a lucrative business.

According to Ovum, to support revenue growth banks need to focus on customer experience and production innovation. How can mobile payments help financial institutions re-engage with their consumers? And what role does security play in this?

Paying for something is the last thing anyone wants to do. What if it could be made into an experience – where you have, at least, the feeling of being in control of your finances or even getting rewarded for spending your hard earned cash? Mobile changes the banking experience.

All pay-TV operators would like to improve TV quality, reduce content delivery costs and reach larger audiences. Who wouldn’t? Given today’s current bandwidth limitations how can operators’ grow their OTT business? Where will the next billion viewers come from?

TV Everywhere
Consumer’s appetite to watch their favorite shows anytime anywhere is showing no sign of slowing. And the ever increasing availability of IP connected devices is fueling this demand. No wonder, pay-TV operators are looking to offer OTT services to meet this growing need.

There is no doubt about it, pirates are criminals. Unfortunately they are also entrepreneurs. They know that high quality, compelling content offered at a reasonable price sells! As such all legal content – thematic channels, recent movie releases, and particularly live sport – is a target. Unless investments are protected, content is not safe.

More and more are out there
As you know from my earlier post , we are facing a wave of piracy larger than ever before.